Chris Jones
The most recent Open Mic Night, a Halloween-themed event that took place on October 28th, 2011, was a pretty controversial event. Mixed in with traditional performances from bands and solo acoustics sets, were several unexpected acts that raised eye-brows. After this first Open Mic of the year, Ms. Hardesty initially cancelled all future Open Mic Nights because of some of the inappropriate behavior and performances that occurred. However, due to discontent amongst musicians, Open Mic will be back but under stricter management.
Ms. Hardesty feels that certain acts incorporated "inappropriate language and gestures," which were degrading to women, along with some anti-religious statements.
"The ultimate goal of Open Mic Night is to provide a safe place for students to express themselves. However, it is still a school function and there need to be certain guidelines and parameters," stated Ms. Hardesty. "The first hour was great. There were so many different genres, grade levels and groups of kids performing," Ms. Hardesty explained. However, she felt that this most recent Open Mic Night developed into an "unsafe environment." In addition to the controversial acts, there was also suspected intoxication among some students.
Though this was the first Open Mic Night that Ms. Hardesty attended, the last Open Mic of the 2010-2011 school year also had some issues. There was a general concern about behavior, which resulted in a conference with the leadership. Due to these two instances, Ms. Hardesty worries that such behavior has been present in Open Mic Nights for awhile.
Despite these issues, Ms. Hardesty has decided to permit Open Mic Night to continue. After having a conversation with a parent of one of the musicians who offered help behind the scenes and had suggestions about tightening up the event, Ms. Hardesty was persuaded to continue it under stricter supervision. One new guideline is a possible contract that musicians must sign that will ensure proper behavior.
Senior Andrew Wolfson, the president of the Open Mic club has high hopes for the upcoming Open Mic Nights. He hopes that they will be more serious and have fewer joke acts. "I allowed people to do whatever and they took advantage of that freedom," said Andrew. Though the behavior during these events has to change, Andrew feels that the sheer number of people who attended should stay the same. Andrew wants future concerts to have good music, plenty of people, sober fun and a happy faculty.
If Open Mic had been officially banned, Andrew would have attempted to try out the rec center, the Station Cafe or Jeb Polstein's house as potential alternative venues. Andrew’s message to Open Mic goers is, "As long as Andrew Wolfson is alive, music will live on Hastings-on- Hudson."
Paul Dolin's comedy act was one of the acts under scrutiny. Some chaperones expressed their concerns about his act because of the coarse language he used. However, Paul complains that this was his third time performing comedy with curses and there had not been any problems before. Though he admits that this time he went a little overboard with the language, he felt like he was just doing what he had done before. Paul believes that because there were so many other problems, his act was deemed controversial, causing him to become the "cherry on top" of the failure of the event. Paul hopes that he will be able to perform next time but he is unsure if he will be given that privilege."
Paul feels that the main problem was with the audience. He feels like a lot of people were intoxicated at the event and that they "have to realize it is still school." It is clear that the next Open Mic Night will be run very differently as the future of Open Mic Night will depend on it.